The Lottery
by x.X.x YoiU x.X.x
Summary: OOC, Kagome is living in the feudal times, and things are VERY different. What's up with this lottery?


The Lottery

Everyone gathered around the small clearing, grabbing at rakes and pulling the leaves away from the center. Small kids ran back and forth from the small lake, gathering smooth stones all the way and shoving them into their kimonos. The older kids grabbing sticks and brandishing them like swords. The husbands filed in from the trees, having finished early in the fields. They held tight to their young, playful children. Wives came in from behind their eldest children. Mrs. Higurashi gave her husband a small smile and a peck on the cheek. "Where's Kagome," Mr. Higurashi asked his nearly silent wife.

"She's going to be coming a bit late today."

"Why is that?"

"Old Kaede-san was in need of walking assistance." Mr. Higurashi smiled at his wife. "I shine with pride for our loving daughter."

Kagome and Kaede slowly appeared in the center of the clearing, the old lady clutching desperately to a worn box. She gave the youth beside her a warm smile. "Now, as you all know, today is the day of the lottery!" Kagome yelled enthusiastically. Everyone around her cheered. "Now, is everyone here?" People looked around to see if anyone was missing, then in unison stated that no one was missing. "Okay, then, every family needs to send the man of their house up to get a piece of paper."

One by one, the men of each of the houses approached the beautiful Kagome in the middle of them all. When Mr. Higurashi came to take his piece of paper, she held his gaze for only a moment before looking away again, whispering, "Father." Every family now had a small piece of paper folded in his hand. One of the families was going to open it to find a big red dot. The red dot symbolized two things. One: you won. Two: you'll figure two out later.

"Who has it?" someone in the crowd shouted loudly for everyone to hear. Mrs. Higurashi gasped and almost screamed when her husband opened their paper and found the red dot. The villagers all sighed with relief. Their families hadn't won.

"How many?"

"Four," Mr. Higurashi called. The paper with the dot was placed back into the box with three other scraps of paper. Kagome gave the box to Kaede for her to stir the pieces. Sota, the youngest, took the first paper. Then Kagome, who was followed by her father and then her mother. The crowd fell silent. Kagome's parents both sighed in relief when neither of them had the dot. Then her mother nearly screamed when she realized that one of her children was going to have to die.

Sota smiled as he opened his, he hadn't won.

Kagome wanted to scream. He mother cried. Young children gathered around with their sticks and the kids further in the back got out their rocks. Stones flew past her face and sticks smashed against her. Bones could be heard snapping, joints were popping, people were laughing and enjoying themselves.

Kagome began to cry. "Please, someone understand! This is wrong… The lottery is nothing but unjustly murdering people you love!" No one paused, not even slight hesitation. They just kept beating her.

A red and silver blob shot by, causing every one to stop. One of the little ones screamed loudly, "Demon!"

Everyone began to scream uncontrollably, demons were uncommon but feared by everyone. People were kidnapped and never seen again. No one was ever known to come back from a demon's layer. Kagome stayed, still as stone, where she had fallen. The demon was scaring everyone away. They often did this before devouring one of the people who were dumb enough to stay. Everyone was gone now, no one but Kagome and the demon.

He stopped jumping around and running so fast. He was tall, taller than her father. With his silver hair and golden eyes, it seemed like he was the god of all gods. "Inuyasha, did you really have to scare everyone away like that? I mean seriously, my mom peed herself!"

The demon laughed. "Sorry, Kagome, but I really couldn't do anything about it. You know that demons aren't accepted in this village. I had to do something!"

She ran over to him, holding him close. He kissed her deeply. "Inu… How did you know that I was the one who 'won'?"

He gave her another kiss. "That's my secret, Kagome…My special gift to you."


End file.
